The Person to See

How Branding Increases Business Value

Today, I am pleased to introduce guest blogger, Alan Herman, the CEO of Alan Herman & Associates, an aadvertising and marketing communications firm with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.

 

Why branding is important for your business

 

Last week, a client asked me a great question: "Alan, what should I be doing for my business today that will prepare me to take advantage of the eventual economic recovery?" It's a great question and one that, as the owner of a marketing communications firm for more than 40 years, I've heard asked a lot.

 

My answer to him, as it's always been, was: invest in your branding. So what is branding? In the old days, the term literally referred to the branding of cattle, but the idea was the same. Branding is about creating a "mark" or a distinctive identity that separates your cattle from the rest of the herd. And that's also what your goal should be in business.  Good branding allows you to increase your prospects, retain your current clients and maintain your pricing or fees.

 

Branding also will allow you to maximize the value of your company in the event of a sale. Rather than spending money on search engine optimization or hiring a new salesperson, building in your brand is like investing in an asset. In fact, brands are assets. Elements of your brand such as a memorable logo, a recognizable tagline or company trademark are listed on a company's balance sheet and can add up to some serious dough. Just take the example of the Pillsbury Doughboy. When General Mills purchased Pillsbury from Diageo in 2003, value of the Doughboy in the form of goodwill exceeded $1 billion dollars!

 

A couple other things to think about when it comes to branding:

 

1) The more consistent and often you use your branding in the public arena the better–marketing has both long-term and short-term effects.

 

2) You only get one chance to make a first impression with a customer or potential client–like it or not, they'll judge your company and products based on how professional your branding looks.

 

3) Bring in a professional. As much as you'd like to believe that saving a couple bucks by using your friend from high school to create your brand identity is a good move, it's probably not.

A Great Resource To Help You Get Your Message Out

A client of mine, Laine Wagenseller (who also happens to be a great real estate lawyer) turned me onto the site aboutfacemedia.com.  These guys produce corporate documentaries which I think may be a fabulous marketing tool for some of you.

I'm personally looking into it.  It is worth a look-see. 

More on the Elevator Pitch

Anyone who knows me knows how important I think the 15 Second Commercial (aka "Elevator Pitch") is to business success.

Attached is a very valuable written presentation by Matt Anderson on how you can make your pitch better.  "6 Keys to a Great Elevator Speech"

 Download 6 Keys to a Great Elevator Speech

Even The Giants Work On Their Brands

My client Jennifer Taylor of Arroyo Holdings just finished Warren Buffet's recent biography Snowball.  Jennifer so enjoyed the book she dashed off a little note to Mr. Buffet telling him how much she enjoyed it.  To her surprise and delight Warren Buffet dashed off a note himself thanking Jennifer for her words of kindness.

Here's a copy of the note.  Download WBNote

Not bad!  What other titans of industry would have taken the time to do the same?

If Ever There Was Any Doubt In Your Mind About The Import Of Your Personal Brand

Tiger Woods is unquestionalbly the greatest golfer in the world.  I just read that his skill made him a whopping $5,775,000 this year so far.  Not bad.

His personal brand in contrast will make him in excess of $100,000,000.

The "All Things To All People" Strategy Doesn't Work

Here's an excerpt from an article written by Robert Kiyosaki on personal branding...

"Often entrepreneurs want to be pleasing, polite, inoffensive , nice-all things to all people.  This isn't being a brand; this is being a commodity-and a boring one at that...Brands become exclusive by excluding."

If you want to read the full article Rich Returns Admit One.

BTW: One of my best pals sent me this article.  Thanks Ray!

A Nice Signature Gift Idea

Here's a phenomenal gift idea.  I speak from experience as I was a beneficiary.  Check out            Pacific Cookie Company.  Fantastic cookies and great packaging.  I don't get any kickbacks for promoting these guys.  You will be a hero.  Trust me.

Every Owner In Every Company Should Worry About Every Employees Personal Brand

I can't tell you how many times I hear from people "Personal Branding is not really important to me because I am not in sales."

This morning I went to rent a truck from Public Storage.  The Company's posted hours for Sunday are  10am-2pm.  I along with several other folks arrived ten to fifteen minutes early.  At varying times we each peered into the window to see if anyone was there.

I can't say I was surprised to find a gal sitting behind a desk just hanging out waiting for 10am to come.  If we want to be sticklers for time she open the doors five minutes late.  But who is counting.

When we went in the gal was equally uninterested in our needs.  It was quite obvious she wasn't interested in serving customers.  Instead she was just logging the hours necessary to collect a paycheck.

What do you think, would working on your receptionist's, clerk's or other non-sales related person's personal brands help?

Little Deeds With Great Love

Mother Theresa was once asked...

"How could someone like you-small in stature (4' 11"), average intelligence, average public speaking skills, never had a cellphone, palm pilot, fax machine or hosted a single fund raising event-change the face of charity around the world?"

To which Mother Theresa responded, "Everyday I remind my girls, it is not great deeds as much as it is little deeds done with great love over and over again."

Somewhere along the line I learned from someone (probably my Dad or Mom) that everyone is important so let them know how much you appreciate them.  To this end whenever we do a presentation for a company we always make sure we express our appreciation to the person who coordinated the event.  It's usually someone's executive assistant.  The real unsung hero.

Our signature mitzvah is simply some flowers.  I cannot tell you how much positive feedback we get.  One person recently wrote us saying, "The best I ever got from any speaker was an email thank you."

The Three Keys To Building Your Business

I was having a conversation this morning withmy client and we were talking about how to build a book of business from the ground up.  I told him it is real simple.  There are three key steps...

• Hone your message in the form of a dynamic 15 second commercial
• Identify key centers of influence and than get out there and tell your story
• Finally, you must be tenacious when it comes to maintaining contact. Most business comes from our efforts to stay top of mind.

That's it.  Some people want to complicate things when it is not necessary.  Remember, simple good complex bad.